towing out the Fury, and foddering her leaks with sails under the keel, should endeavour to convey her to some place more adapted for thorough repair.

The relading the Fury, therefore, was commenced previous to leaving her; the pumps required the constant attendance of ten or twelve hands to keep her free, and the Hecla remained by her to the last possible moment. At length fresh masses of ice swept down so heavily, and so violently struck either the Hecla or the bergs to which she was attached, that it was plain that her safety, and consequently the preservation of both the crews, depended upon immediately bearing out, since very little additional pressure must drive her on shore; accordingly she put to sea with no more than ten hands, the remainder being employed on the Fury. Fortunate it was for the valuable lives engaged on this voyage, that this resolution was seasonably adopted, for the Fury, soon after, was forced aground, and so locked in by fresh masses of ice, as to be almost surrounded on every side where there was sufficient depth of water to heave her off. At eight o'clock on the evening of the 21st of August, all hands were recalled, leaving eighteen inches water in the well, and four pumps requisite to keep her free. Before morning, the barrier of closely-packed ice intervening between the Fury, and the open water in which the Hecla was beating, had increased to four or five miles in breadth.

It was not till late on the 25th, that Captains Parry and Hoppner were able to regain the point on which the Fury lay, so as accurately to survey her. It then appeared too clearly, that, even if she could be hauled off, (which would first require the water to be got out, and the hold to be cleared, an operation calculated to occupy no less than five days,) it would be quite impracticable to make her sea-worthy. The pumps could not free her even if once again afloat; and twenty days' repair would be necessary after she was hove down. Under these circumstances, the officers unanimously concurred in the sad necessity of abandoning her. They were allowed an hour for packing up their clothes and whatever else belonged to them which the water had not covered. The whole of her stores were of necessity left behind, for the double complement of men now stowed on board the Hecla necessarily occupied every spare corner. All expectation of completing the object of the voyage was at an end; for the progress hitherto made was far too small to justify any attempt at wintering a second time in the Polar Seas, with a stock of provisions not calculated to last beyond the ensuing autumn-return to England was therefore imperative.

It

The voyage home did not offer any incident of moment. afforded, however, if it had been wanting, a satisfactory practical

proof of the advantage of employing on a service of this nature ships of like size and similarly equipped. This had been sensibly felt in the attempt to heave down the Fury, for every article in either ship being a duplicate of some other in its companion, the means and resources were doubled, as it were, to each. The same was perceived in the greater facility of accommodation afforded to the additional crew, in a vessel with which they became at once familiar. One man, a scrofulous subject, died on the passage, the remainder returned in as sound health as they had quitted home eighteen months before, and made Peterhead on the 12th of October.

Our concluding extract must be long; but it would be unjust to Captain Parry if we were to abridge it. It contains all that can be urged on the experiment of his voyage; and while it records the high merit of his predecessors in glowing language, from its modesty, it cannot fail to increase the deep feeling which all who have followed his Narratives must entertain of his own.

"In revisiting many of the spots discovered by our early British navigators in the Polar regions, and in traversing the same tracks which they originally pursued, I have now and then, in the course of my Narratives, had occasion to speak of the faithfulness of their accounts, and the accuracy of their hydrographical information. I should, however, be doing but imperfect justice to the memory of these extraordinary men, as well as to my own sense of their merits, if I permitted the present opportunity to pass without offering a still more explicit and decided testimony to the value of their labours. The accounts of Hudson, Baffin, and Davis are the production of men of no common stamp. They evidently relate things just as they saw them, dwelling on such nautical and hydrographical notices as, even at this day, are valuable to any seaman going over the same ground, and describing every appearance of nature, whether on the land, the sea, or the ice, with a degree of faithfulness which can alone perhaps be duly appreciated by those who succeed them in the same regions, and under similar circumstances. The general outline of the lands they discovered was laid down by themselves with such extraordinary precision, even in longitude, as scarcely to require correction in modern times; of which fact the oldest maps now extant of Baffin's Bay, and the Straits of Hudson and Davis, constructed from the original materials, will afford sufficient proof. The same accuracy is observable in their accounts of the tides, soundings, and bearings, phenomena in which the lapse of two hundred years can have wrought but little change. It is, indeed, impossible for any one personally acquainted with the phenomena of the icy seas, to peruse the plain and unpretending narratives of these navigators, without recognising in almost every event they relate some circumstance familiar to his own recollection and experience, and meeting with numberless remarks which bear most unequivocally about them the impress of truth.

"While thus doing justice to the faithfulness and accuracy with which they recorded their discoveries, one cannot less admire the intrepidity, perseverance, and skill with which, inadequately furnished as they were, those discoveries were effected, and every difficulty and danger braved. That any man, in a single frail vessel of five-and-twenty tons, ill-found'in most respects, and wholly unprovided for wintering, having to contend with a thousand real difficulties, as well as with numberless imaginary ones, which the superstitions then existing among sailors would not fail to conjure up,-that any man, under such circumstances, should, two hundred years ago, have persevered in accomplishing what our old navigators did accomplish, is, I confess, sufficient to create in my mind a feeling of the highest pride on the one hand, and almost approaching to humiliation on the other: of pride, in remembering that it was our countrymen who performed these exploits; of humiliation, when I consider how little, with all our advantages, we have succeeded in going beyond them.

"Indeed, the longer our experience has been in the navigation of the icy seas, and the more intimate our acquaintance with all its difficulties and all its precariousness, the higher have our admiration and respect been raised for those who went before us in these enterprises. Persevering in difficulty, unappalled by danger, and patient under distress, they scarcely ever use the language of complaint, much less that of despair; and sometimes, when all human hope seems at its lowest ebb, they furnish the most beautiful examples of that firm reliance on a merciful and superintending Providence, which is the only rational source of true fortitude in man. Often, with their narratives impressed upon my mind, and surrounded by the very difficulties which they in their frail and inefficient barks undauntedly encountered and overcame, have I been tempted to exclaim with all the enthusiasm of Purchas, 'How shall I admire your heroicke courage, ye marine worthies, beyond names of worthiness!'

'On a subject which has, for many years past, excited so strong and general an interest as that of the North-West Passage, a subject which has called forth so much warm British feeling in every British heart, it may perhaps be expected that, charged as I have been with three several attempts at its accomplishment, I should, ere I close this volume, once more offer an opinion. This I am enabled to do the more briefly, because the question evidently rests nearly where it did before the equipment of the late expedition, and I have, therefore, little to offer respecting it, in addition to what I have already said at the close of my last Narrative. The views I then entertained on this subject, of the nature and practicability of the enterprise, of the means to be adopted, and the route to be pursued for its accomplishment, remain wholly unaltered at the present moment: except that some additional encouragement has been afforded by the favourable appearances of a navigable sea near the south-western extremity of Prince Regent's Inlet. To that point, therefore, I can, in the present state of our knowledge, have no hesitation in still recommending that any future attempt should be directed.

"I feel confident that the undertaking, if it be deemed advisable at any future time to pursue it, will one day or other be accomplished; for, setting aside the accidents to which, from their very nature, such attempts must be liable, as well as other unfavourable circumstances which human foresight can never guard against, nor human power control, I cannot but believe it to be an enterprise well within the reasonable limits of practicability. It may be tried often, and often fail, for several favourable and fortunate circumstances must be combined for its accomplishment; but I believe nevertheless that it will ultimately be accomplished. That it is not to be undertaken lightly, nor without due attention to every precaution which past or future experience may suggest, our recent failures, under such advantages of equipment as no other expedition of any age or country ever before united, aud we trust also our own endeavours to effect something worthy of so liberal an outfit, will at least serve to shew. I am much mistaken, indeed, if the North-West Passage ever becomes the business of a single summer; nay, I believe that nothing but a concurrence of very favourable circumstances is likely even to make a single winter in the ice sufficient for its accomplishment. But this is no argument against the possibility of final success; for we now know that a winter in the ice may be passed not only in safety, but in health and comfort. I would only, therefore, in conclusion, urge those who may at any future time be charged with this attempt, to omit no precaution that can in the slightest degree contribute to the strength of the ships, the duration of their resources, the wholesomeness and freshness of their provisions, the warmth, ventilation, and cleanliness of the inhabited apartments, and the comfort, cheerfulness, and moral discipline of their

crews.

"Happy as I should have considered myself in solving this interesting question, instead of still leaving it a matter of speculation and conjecture, happy shall I also be if any labours of mine in the humble, though it would seem necessary, office of pioneer, should ultimately contribute to the success of some more fortunate individual; but most happy should I again be to be selected as that individual. May it still fall to England's lot to accomplish this undertaking, and may she ever continue to take the lead in enterprises intended to contribute to the advancement of science, and to promote, with her own, the welfare of mankind at large! Such enterprises, so disinterested as well as useful in their object, do honour to the country which undertakes them, even when they fail; they cannot but excite the admiration and respect of every liberal and cultivated mind; and the page of future history will undoubtedly record them as every way worthy of a powerful, a virtuous, and an enlightened nation."—pp. 181-186.

The Appendix contains the customary Scientific papers, apparently drawn up with much precision, but which, as they defy abridgment, it would be unjust to mangle. The general style of the narrative resembles that in which Captain Parry has written before; it is plain, manly, clear, and unpretending. Whatever the gallant

sailor himself has had to do is done well; but there is a fault somewhere in permitting the price of a volume which ought to find its way into extensive circulation, and which would not be cheap at a guinea (it does not contain 340 pages), amount to fifty shillings, and we fear this must be charged in part upon the apathy of those official personages under whose authority it is put forth.

ART. VII.-The Natural History of the Bible; or, a Description of all the Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, and Insects; Trees, Plants, Flowers, Gums, and Precious Stones, mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures; collected from the Best Authorities, and Alphabetically Arranged. By Thaddeus Mason Harris, D.D., of Dorchester, Massachusetts. London, T. Tegg, Cheapside, 1824.

CONSIDERING the great advances which have lately been made in natural history, and the number of modern scientific travellers who have published their observations in Palestine and the neighbouring countries, it might reasonably be hoped, that the allusions made in scripture to natural objects, would be more satisfactorily and correctly elucidated than they could have been by older commentators. Such elucidations Dr. Harris has employed himself in gleaning, with much industry and discrimination, from both ancient and modern stores.

But, before we introduce our readers to any of the results of his laborious researches, we must enter a caveat against attaching too great importance to inquiries of this kind, as connected with the study of the Bible. We are to search the scriptures, as thinking and knowing that in them is to be found the instruction which leadeth to eternal life, testifying of Christ what it is of infinite importance that we should have ever in our minds. Now the unhappy tendency of mankind to escape, if possible, from the demands which the scriptures press upon their consciences, if it does not make them shrink from reading their Bibles, leads them to love to dwell on any thing irrelevant to the main purport of the inspired volume, rather than be distressed by the conviction, that more is required from them than they can resolve to attempt requiring How often is something resembling this exhibited in the Sunday evening conversations of persons who feel some scruple about talking of ordinary diversions or business on that day, and yet advance